is it worth the hype? for fans of the series? yes. for casual gamers? no. why? no innovation whatsoever. is a good game, thats it. nothing groundbreaking, is nothing but run and shoot. that gets old after a while. they need to come up with something that makes the game better than the last 2, something different, not only better graphics. rainbow six did it, gears did it. why they can't? money,cause fans are going to buy it if the game looks like the other 2.

Considering Halo 2 is still one of the most-played multiplayer titles in console gaming today, if there was nothing at all new and all that was being released was two years' tweaking and rebalancing the game, it'd still sell millions and satisfy fans' needs. What's to complain about?

Nothing new to Halo 3? What about Saved Films? You can save every game that you play on Xbox Live. Watch it right after it's done or save it for later. In the beta you can only see it in first person view, but in the full game you can control over the camera, you can go slow mo', put it on pause and more.

You can also upload the films to you Shared Folder so that others can download them (they're not big, just a few MB) and watch it themselves. I think you can set up a lobby and invite friends to join you and watch it together so that you can talk about it =) Sound like really good fun, and it's also good for clans to see what tactics others use.

There is no game as satisfying in terms of combat and each Halo has proved better than the last in this regard - beta proves this side of things has gotten better still.I played the beta last night with a friend for the third time after it's release and it was almost too much fun.Providing they nail that single player so that we end up with an experience just as epic as the first, then we fans are in for a truly awesome time.Multiplayer will continue to destroy like it always does because it does it better than anything else.

I'm sorry, but the single player experience with Halo and Halo 2 were NOT earth shattering by ANY means. Halo 1 had some of the most boring and agonizing level design I've ever played. ESPECIALLY towards the end. I mean geez how many times do I have to go through the SAME DAMN Corridor with the goddamn flood chasing me.

It's personal opinion of course, but COD, Half-life, Half-life 2, amongst many others were far suprior single player games than either halo or halo2.

And halo 2 multiplayer gets frustrating when you are a casual gamer who has to work the entire week only to go up against some 16 year old trashtalkers who play 24/7.

And before some other dipshit PMs me with some stupid ass comment like "Don't blame the game because you suck" (you know who you are), realize that I am not criticizing the game, I'm criticizing quite a few of the players I end up seeing online.

Halo 3 will sell most in North america obviously, because most Xbox consoles are in that Continent. Europe has a strong following and i bet 1 out of 3 xbox owners will buy halo 3 within first month of release. As for Japan and ROW i can't judge

thats ok get to to see the replay of the same game over and over again. and what else, weapons? maps? vehicles? no innovation ,just the replay, that it.who knows, they might have a nice surprise ,at least with the mission part of the game. i can only hope.

weapons - third person weapons, weapons that immobilize vehicles, removable turrets, return of old weapons, and new weapons. new, equipment - mines, bubbleshields, jammer, grav lift, energy depletion. vehicles - brute chopper, new wraith, mongoose. what are you talking about no innovation, name one fps game with something like the brute chopper? Plus there's the ability to play around with all the settings, from speed to gravity.

At the end of the day all that really matters is if it's fun to play. And I would have to say that every single Halo game that I have played has given me more fun than any other innovative game has ever given me.

WafflesID , i agree with your comment about it's being a little frustrating going into a match and having some 24/7 kid annoy the Sh!t out of you - what can you do though , iv'e had this with cod as well.

Half life2 like is easily on par with Halo's greatness but they really shouldn't be seen as being better than each other.It could be argued that Half life has a better story but i can't really see why that is considering both games delight in this area too.

COD is not a dreadfull game but it's not in the same league but as these two.

#11 Tony everyone's entitled to their own opinion but I just want to understand your thinking so give examples of other FPS's that have this unique innovation you speak of. I thought #11.1 Xi gave some great examples of just a "few" of the innovations in Halo3.

I think we should be careful not to over-use that word as some sort of measuring stick though because even those things, Xi speaks of about Halo3, just like 95% of most of the stuff/idea's you'll find in even the legendary AAA games of yesterday have all in some shape or form been done before. -The KEY is taking a older idea and by re-doing/reshaping/molding it into a new one and successfuly doing it better than most games in the past have done....WITHOUT totally messing up all the standard things that work well in the genre. -This is why Halo excels because its an overall great shooter, with a great story, that has plenty of innovation, and of course the online multiplayer will keep you playing it for more hrs than what is probably reccomended for a healthy lifestyle.

-In the end you can have all the "innovation" in the world but it won't change the fact that a great "shooter", is a [email protected] game where the goal is to have a fun and exciting environment for "shooting" your enemy. -Again, this is WHY Halo is a awesome game.

#7.1 WafflesID, I also work alot and I don't get to play nearly as much as I like, thankfully at my job I use the computer all day long (which is why I can comment on N4G so much in my spare time) but either way I've never been nearly as good as those who play all day long, although I don't mind smack talk that much, I do hate the racial and just plain old foul mouthed little punks, thankfully with Halo3 it will be very quick and easy to shut them up with the brand new "A-hole" button feature. As far as skill level the ranking system is suppose to help but some will always be a whole lot better than us, given how much they play, I suggest finding some buddies who you know that like it also but aren't hardore everyday players and inviting them to game with you, thats the best experience ever....and even then a lil trash talk amongst friends who don't take it too far is alot more enjoyable. http://www.eurogamer.net/ar...

rainbow six, cover system, rappel,equipment according to rank,face integration via vision camera,etc... very sim. well,in another note,to be fair, halo might have some things they haven't revealed yet, well see. have you seen fracture yet?

Yeah R6: Vegas is a great game, but I think it only adds to my earlier comments, because you pointed out 4 ideas that you would call innovative but again....other than face integration, the other ideas have all by done in many games, R6: Vegas just adds its own flavor and does it really good or better than some others.

I own the game and I beat it awhile ago but from what I can remember even some reviews called the cover system "similiar" to Gears in several of them and we know Gears wasn't the first, Gears just did it better and with more style than we have seen from most previous tactical shooters. -The "Rodie Run", now that was a nice small innovation there. Rappeling is cool and different but isn't a brand new idea to shooters, also equipment in shooters will obviously vary along with "upgrades" but thats standard stuff in most shooters. Another point to consider is that Halo3 is not a "tactical" shooter, by design its a run and gun, in your face type of sci-fi shooter with a great story....so some things just aren't appropriate. -Hell face mapping would be awesome but Master Chiefs Helmet is a ICON in the videogame industry.

Now as far as Fracture is concerned I don't know where's the leap in innovation, but hey I don't know much about it, so we'll have to see how that turns out.

Now finally heres the big problem with the whole "innovation" situation. It can easily backfire, many, many games have adapted alot of "new ideas" into every genre available but more often than not alot of them either were NOT "great" innovations or the idea itself was just NOT implemented properly.....not to mention the BIGGER problem with sequels because you will always have those "diehards" who say: "Why the hell did they change this part?", or "I liked the way it used to do.....", or "Why the hell didn't they do....?" etc, etc, -Now this in no way means that a dev shouldn't look to be creative or attempt to do the "unthinkable", but just remember......one mans "innovation" is another mans "WTF?"

vision cam is from thug, rappel were in many other games, weapons by rank was bf2, and sim is sim, I can play operation flashpoint or ghost recon. Good games, aren't always games that are innovative, they're games that set the bar, or do everything the best it can, something which halo does.